I say "Vanderbilt is bad because they didn't have a single winning season in 26 years, have made 3 bowls in the history of their program, and failed to beat their primary rival for more than a generation. UCONN, in their time in Division I (about 62 years less) already has as much if not more success in these regards." In other words, I made a statement, and provided evidence to support it.

THEN, someone comes in and says "Well, if this thing that isn't true was true in the gum-drop land of the fantasies of my mind, then this would happen." How can I possibly refute that? Yes, Kblow. Possibly, if Vanderbilt didn't play any of the teams that they've played for the past 75 years and you replaced them with different teams, their record would be different. Thank you for that.

That doesn't change the fact the Vanderbilt's "tradition" that the previous poster preferred, is one of consistent, overbearing, failure.

If the goal was a couple safe,easy wins against a respectable opponent that I think we've met that goal. But at a time when our biggest rival has scheduled home and homes w/ USC, Virginia Tech, Texas and Tennessee this looks pretty pathetic. I personally would have liked to have seen a bigger opponent in this slot. Oklahoma State would have been fun.

While UConn is not the sexiest choice (perhaps RR elevated expectations too high with the "BCS opponent, home and home" comment), is it really that big a deal? They're not lame. And in the end, if we take care of business during that return visit (I am still not convinced there isn't a way to wiggle out of that) when RR is in firm control of the juggernaut, the athletic department won't go broke and we'll certainly have a better schedule than...oh, Penn State's non-conference on any given year (let me try and not mess this cut and paste up):

They are coming to Crisler soon for last year's return game. It's apples and Oranges, we're a pretty historic basketball program compared to UConn's football program. Plus they play many more games in b-ball so one away game shouldn't be a huge deal. (I'm not ecstatic about traveling to play Utah this year).

I wonder if Duke fans threw complete hissy like this when they schedules themselves to play a home-and-home with our hoops team. Or...uh...did UCONN throw a hissy when their hoops team scheduled a home-and-home with us?

Also - we scheduled a home-and-home with an up-and-coming Oregon team at their 50,000 seat stadium. This isn't an earth-shattering proposal.

Texas is playing AT Wyoming - smaller, non-BCS schools are becoming less and less willing to offer themselves up as sacrificial lambs to larger schools. Is UCONN AWESOME? No. But it's perfectly fine. They're better than most OOC games we schedule. I understand not being pumped by this, but I don't get the outrage either.

Yeah not that the game is official but Uconn is definitely pointed in the upward direction.

In 2010 they will have sr/jrs at nearly all the skill positions their oline will be more of a mixture but the Dline will all be veterans. And the secondary shouldn't be too shabby either, it is not a push over

I will reserve judgment until I see when and where the return game is scheduled.

People need to remember that ND was supposed to be the major non-con matchup for UM when that deal was signed. UConn isn't an insulting matchup and I actually think they've got a lot of pieces in place to build a good program over time.

But again, I will reserve judgment until the entire layout of the series is announce.

We win, and the whole world says, "big fuckin' deal, you're supposed to beat them." And if we lose, which nobody can say is out of the realm of possibility at this point, we become the laughingstock of the football world for the third year in a row.

What I don't get is that BM has known for at least two and maybe three years that this game would have to be arranged. Why is it coming down to the last minute?

Kind of funny how everyone is freaking out over something that at this point is nothing more than some person's speculation. In the next week when there is an official announcement made and we know the real situation then let us open this board back up and we will have this discussion then. Until then we all need to practice this excercise, "Breathe in, breathe out, now repeat."

If UM is going to play a home-and-home, it should be against a team in Florida or Texas to help recruiting there. Also, a trip to Florida during the regular season is a pretty nice perk, even if the weather is a little warm. FSU or USF would be a nice opponent, as would Texas A&M. I don't want to see a game against Florida or Texas, because they might not be quite ready to beat either of those teams yet.

UGA or Auburn would be pretty cool, too, because it is closer to where they are trying to recruit. There just isn't any real benefit to playing UConn right now.

All-in-all, I would rather see them play FSU so I can imagine they are getting revenge for what I still call "the evil Terrell Buckley game." I had the best seats I ever had at the Big House for that game, and was extremely disappointed at the outcome.

that doesn't mean it will happen. Alot of fans seem to think that it is easy to arrange big time matchups. It isn't.OSU can schedule those top teams because they will play three cupcakes to go with that. ONE tough OCC game a year.

UM's mistake was signing that deal with ND. People want variety, not the same ND team year after year.

but didn't UConn win a lot more games than we did last year? And, I wouldn't be shocked if they win more games than Michigan does this year. Chill, guys. It's not the be all and end all of games, but there's nothing wrong with scheduling a winning team from a BCS conference.

He supported UM b-ball scheduling games against top opponents even when the basketball team was in the dumps. Even though the football team had a down year, it's still in a lot better shape than the basketball team was.

“No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.”

Whether it's UCONN or not, can't do a damn thing about it. No point in bitching.

If the complete tease issued by RR, coupled with a few reports of who it's NOT, is leading up to a less-than-stellar matchup, then those folks who are spouting out the ambiguity are dicks and should have kept their mouths shut.